Having just reviewed
an album featuring Gary Burton as an up-and-coming
musician with Stan Getz's quartet, I find
it particularly interesting to hear these
two albums, recorded in 1967 and 1968, after
Gary left Getz and formed his own quartet.
They display two very different aspects of
Burton's work. Lofty Fake Anagram has
Gary leading his quartet - a group without
any weak links. In A Genuine Tong Funeral,
Gary's quartet joins a small orchestra led
by pianist-composer Carla Bley.

I must say that I very much
prefer the first album to the second. Lofty
Fake Anagram was one of the Burton Quartet's
most memorable recordings and remains hugely
listenable. Most of the tunes have striking
melodies. They are mostly compositions by
Mike Gibbs, Steve Swallow and Gary Burton
himself, plus Duke Ellington's beautiful Fleurette
Africaine (with some gorgeously curvaceous
guitar from Coryell). Even Carla Bley's Mother
of the Dead Man is more impressive here
than on the Tong Funeral album.

July the 15, 1967
is a hustling tune written by Mike Gibbs and
propelled by Bob Moses' bustling drumming.
Feelings and Things, also by Gibbs,
is a slow, meditative piece on which Burton,
Coryell and Swallow interweave twisting lines.
Gary Burton's composition Lines is
one of the most unforgettable tracks on the
album, with Gary's vibes shimmering as he
plays at unbelievable speed, with lyrical
interludes. The last track, General Mojo
Cuts Up, allows Coryell to play freely
before the quartet launches into an exploration
of free improvisation.

A Genuine Tong Funeral
is anything but genuine. Its composer, Carla
Bley, says: "Any similarity to Chinese music
or folklore, other than in The Funeral's
underlying Oriental dramatic quality was not
intended". There are actually some oriental
echoes in parts of the music, including the
bell-like quality of Gary Burton's vibraphone
and the occasionally reedy tone of Steve Lacy's
soprano sax. Much of the music is decidedly
funereal, as well as frequently discordant.
As Alyn Shipton's sleeve-notes point out,
"It has the seeds of much of her later work,
from jaunty European cafe music to anarchic
freedom, from an obsession with marches and
anthems...to extremes of freedom". Yet the
piece fails to hang together as an integrated
composition. I have admired many other works
by Carla Bley, especially her more recent
compositions, but this just seems a depressing
series of downbeat tracks with few if any
memorable melodies or moments.

Another point against the
Tong Funeral is that Gary Burton's
quartet often gets sidelined in favour of
pre-arranged passages played by the brass
and saxes, and there are few opportunities
for Burton or Coryell to display the extent
of their powers. The fourth track allows them
to play as a quartet but even here they seem
less than inspired, and the title Interlude
tends to downgrade their contribution.

Gary Burton revolutionised
how people play the vibes - using four mallets
when most of his predecessors were content
with two, and leaving the reverb mechanism
largely unused (as Red Norvo had done before).
He approached the vibes as a keyboard instrument,
like a piano, rather than a percussion instrument
- stressing its ability to savour rich chords
instead of just single lines. Burton deserves
to be heard at his best, which is what the
first album delivers but the second album
disappointingly lacks.